Gratituesday: A Heartfelt Gift

I am in the middle of a marathon baking day! I decided I needed a break for a minute. While I've been making a mess of my kitchen, I was thinking of the year I didn't do any baking. My 5th child was born 4 days before Thanksgiving in 2005 (he wasn't due until the end of January). My twins had been early, but our others hadn't been, so at that point we didn't really expect the latest addition to be early. (Now we know better!)

The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas that is normally filled with shopping, decorating, and baking was instead filled with daily trips to the NICU and prayers that our little guy would be home in time for Christmas. He struggled with eating more than expected and just barely made it home in time on the evening of the 23rd. That was the best Christmas gift!

That year, of course, stands out a bit in my mind as quite different from the rest. It was more simple. The fun extras were just that...fun extras, not necessities. The tree went up late, I didn't get out every decoration, and I didn't have time for baking that year. And you know what? We survived! :) Because I'm sure you all know that Christmas isn't about cookies and gifts and decorating. It isn't even about friends and family. It's about the One who came to save the world. But here is the part I wanted to share, the part that I thought of this morning as I made my sugar cookie dough...

Knowing there wasn't going to be much baking going on a with a baby in the NICU, one sweet lady from church offered to take my daughter to her house for a baking day. Sure, of course! Then she asked that my daughter bring my cut out cookie recipe along with the frosting recipe and my cookie cutters. I said okay and wondered why in the world they would want my recipe when I was sure they had a perfectly good recipe and cutters of their own.

My daughter was picked up. She baked, decorated, and had a great time. She was dropped back at home with a pile of cookies. Our cookies. My cookies. They tasted and looked exactly like they always do, made with the same recipe in the familiar shapes. This wasn't just a gift of cookies! It was an unexpected gift of service, of time, of tradition; a modern day foot washing. Those cookies were my second favorite gift that year and probably one of the most thoughtful, Christ-like gifts I've ever received!

*Want to read more about what other are grateful for? Head over to Heavenly Homemakers!

Gratituesday: Recipes on the Internet

Do you remember ten or fifteen years ago when you wanted a recipe you had to call someone who had it or dig through recipe books? One of the biggest blessings of the internet, in my opinion, is to pull up just about any recipe you need in about 2 seconds. I have had a tasty dish at a restaurant and googled for the recipe so I could make it at home. I have longed for a favorite childhood cookie (that was made by a neighbor I lost contact with years ago) then searched for and found the recipe online! It really is amazing if you think about it!

Then there are sites like AllRecipes that allow you to put in the ingredients you have (or don't have) and see what you can make! It's a frugal homemaker best friend!

Here are just a few of the recipes I searched for and have been glad to find this year:

• Bread from a favorite restaurant in our old home town and a video on how to make it!
• The cookies I loved as a kid!
• Red Robin's tasty strawberry lemonade!

If you want to make a new dish you can find the recipe and read reviews about it and sometimes even see a picture tutorial. I have to say this wealth of resources has made me a better cook and more courageous in the recipes I am willing to try! I even found a great way to keep track of all the recipes I find online... but that's another post!

Find more things to be grateful for at Gratituesday hosted by Heavenly Homemakers!

Gratituesday: Veterans

Tomorrow is Veterans' Day so today I am thankful for veterans and the those currently serving our country. Many in my own family served in some branch of the armed forces (my dad, grandpa, uncles). Some of those serving our country end up sacrificing their life and some a part of their body, but ALL sacrifice time away from their precious families.

So tomorrow thank a vet, hang your flag, and most importantly say a prayer for those who are currently helping to make this country a safer place.

Want to read more Gratituesdays? Head over to Heavenly Homemakers.

Gratituesday: Books

I thought I would join in on Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday Challenge and share something I am grateful for today. I am thankful for books. I enjoy reading and if I didn't have other things to do would spend a good portion of the day doing just that! I love fiction (Christian mostly) and non-fiction. Cookbooks, organizing books, homemaking books, homeschooling books, craft books... you name it, I love them.

Just last night I finished The Shack by William Young. It's a tear jerker to be sure! While I take my nightly walk I listen to an audio book. I am almost done with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain. A great treat... why did I wait so long to give it a try?!

Of course, the one book that is always on my bedside table is my Bible. While I read plenty of books, the Bible is the one book that I will never "finish". And for that I am grateful! I always hate it when a good book ends!

Sometimes I just read for entertainment. Sometimes I read to learn something. Sometimes a book really changes the way I think about something. The following are some of the books I have read in the past few years that have really challenged me. I used to view the world quite a bit differently than I do now, thanks in part to these books.

• Money: The Two-Income Trap: why middle-class mothers and fathers are going broke by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi AND The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
• Cleaning: Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley
  
• Coupons: Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom by Stephanie Nelson
• Feminism: The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality by Mary Pride
• Contraception: A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ by Rick and Jan Hess
• Children: Children: Blessing or Burden by Max Heine
• Assisted Reproduction: Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Our World by Liza Mundy
• School: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto
• Our Government: Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth and Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family by Jess Walter
• Conservatism: Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots by Rod Dreher
• Food: More-With-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre
• Islam: America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It by Mark Steyn
• Self Sufficiency: The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery
• Just About Everything: The Bible

Want to read more Gratituesdays? Head over to Heavenly Homemakers.